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ENGINEERS' SOCIETY OF 
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA 



" Our Society "—Its Purpose 
and Its Possibilities 



A TOAST 




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"OUR SOCIETY'' 

Response to a Toast at 
The Annual Banquet of the 

ENGINEERS' SOCIETY OF 
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA 



Hotel Schenley, Pittsburg 
Friday, February 21, 1902 

BY CHAS. F. SCOTT 

President of the Society 







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Printed by the Board of Directors 
of the Society. 



OUR SOCIETY. 




ENTLEMEN:— Our Engi- 
neers' Society of Western 
Pennsylvania celebrates 
its annual festivities on 
the eve of Washington's 
birthday — Washington, the young 
engineer, who found at the conflu- 
ence of our rivers a strategic point 
for future supremacy. At this sea- 
son our Society begins a new year — 
its affairs are entrusted to the guid- 
ance of new officers. This banquet 
is truly a birthday party, for an ap- 
plication for a charter for the Society 
was presented to Judge E. H. Stowe, 
February 21, 1880, 22 years ago to- 
3 



day. At that time, as a gentleman 
remarked to me this evening, there 
were very few engineers in Pitts- 
burg, and the enlarged influence of 
the engineer has been one of the 
notable features of the last few years. 
The charter named several classes 
of engineers who would compose the 
Society, but did not include a class 
which is typified in one of the em- 
blems by which Miss Pittsburg has 
has been surrounded by the artist 
who designed the little books before 
us. For in modest position behind 
the folds of her golden gown— pos- 
sibly toward the east to typify East 
Pittsburg — there stands a dynamo. 
In those early days the electricians 
did not count, but during four years 
past and another to comie, two sec- 
retaries are taken from the ranks of 
electrical engineers, and during a year 

4 



past and a year to come the two 
presidents are electrical engineers. 

Our Society grew. Its member- 
ship was 249 in 1882, and increased 
with fair uniformity from year to 
year, until in 1894 it reached 448. It 
then fell off to ^60 in 1899. It rose 
to 410 last year, and to 480 in Janu- 
ary of this year. It is now 500. 

There is probably no other local 
engineering society which is so fav- 
orably situated as ours. It is in 
Western Pennsylvania, in Pittsburg, 
in the region and in the city which 
above all others are pre-eminent in 
their engineering works, in the coun- 
try which is assuming the industrial 
supremacy of the world. 

Various elements have contributed 
to the greatness of Pittsburg. The 
three radiating rivers, the underly- 
ing beds of latent heat and power, 
5 



armies of laborers and of skilled 
workmen and their capable mana- 
gers. But besides the facilities and 
the materials and the forces which 
nature supplies, and besides the ac- 
tive workmen and managers and 
capitalists is the man who deter- 
mines bow— how to apply forces and 
to use materials. It is the man who 
finds out how, who plans how, who 
directs how, that has been and ever 
will be one of the first factors in the 
progress that Pittsburg makes— and 
that man, gentlemen, is the Engineer. 
In and about Pittsburg there are 
engineers whose work has made our 
city pre-eminent in a score of indus- 
tries, there are men who are now di- 
recting operations involving tens of 
thousands of men and millions upon 
millions of capital — not merely the 
men who are leaders, high in ability 

6 



and experience and position, but the 
many, prepared in technical schools 
or the school of experience who are 
doing technical and engineering work 
in laboratory and office and work- 
shop. These constitute the brain 
which guides the brawn. What is 
more fitting than that so many en- 
gineers representing so many active 
industries and branches of engin- 
eering and located within an hour's 
radius of the city's center should be 
united by an organization, strong and 
active ? 

Such an organization may well be- 
come the exponent of the engineer- 
ing work of Western Pennsylvania. 
Such an organization should consti- 
tute a "community of interest" 
among progressive and effective men 
engaged in the diverse branches of 
engineering. Such an organization 

7 



should be the means of initiating 
and promoting in a broad and gen- 
erous way those measures which 
advance the interests and efficiency 
of the engineering profession, and 
on the other hand, measures by 
which the engineering profession 
may promote the general interest 
and welfare. 

But in addition to its broader pos- 
sibilities are the advantages which 
come to the individual members of 
such a society through mutual 
acquaintance and intercourse. In each 
branch of engineering, fellow work- 
ers may be mutually helpful in their 
special kinds of work, but engineers 
who are specialists are in danger of 
being restricted both in knowledge 
and in sympathy within narrow lim- 
its. I The bridge designer, the chem- 
ist,[the engine expert, the glass mak- 

8 



er, and the telephone engineer may 
not have much in common. But, al- 
though they may not be able to fol- 
low one another very far into tech- 
nical details, yet there can be appre- 
ciation of the importance of the va- 
rieties of engineering work and of the 
methods which each employs and 
the results which are secured. 

A member of our Society once told 
us the story of the successive diffi- 
culties he had encountered and how 
he had overcome them in developing 
a percussion tool, to be operated by 
compressed air. The various de- 
tails of valve construction and inertia 
troubles remain in my mind only as 
a general impression, but I do re- 
member the story of long-continued, 
painstaking, patient work, in which 
theory and test alternated in guid- 
ing progress, and also the clear, 

9 



concise and interesting way in 
which the story was told. 

A novel idea often tempts one to 
invent and develop, especially if it 
be outside of one's own sphere, as all 
seems so simple and easy. I do not 
know what disappointment might 
have been my lot, but now no bril- 
liant inspiration on percussion tools 
can allure me in hope of speedy 
success into a series of troubles 
which might never end, for I gained 
a profound respect for my friend's 
little air hammer. 

Aside from its technical feature, 
an engineers' society should broad- 
en and develop and inspire its mem- 
bers — it should be dominated by 
the spirit of brotherhood and help- 
fulness. 

Two years ago in this room the 
gentleman who is now second vice- 

10 



president of the Society entered a 
plea for the young engineer of Pitts- 
burg. I urge the same plea. Hun- 
dreds of young men leave their 
homes and come to this city every 
year, enlisting in its engineering ser- 
vice. Some fall among congenial 
and helpful associates, others do 
not. Some have a technical educa- 
tion, others have not. In addition to 
these there are many men of Pitts- 
burg working their way upward by 
the lessons of experience. In gen- 
eral they are earnest, ambitious and 
responsive to surrounding influ- 
ences. These are the men who may 
shape Pittsburg's future. The En- 
gineers' Society should be head- 
quarters for such men. Its library 
and reading room and its parlors 
should be their rendezvous. In its 
regular meetings and its social op- 
11 



portunities they may meet one 
another and they may come in con- 
tact with older men, learning from 
their experience and profiting by 
their presence and aquaintance. 

Who of us has not felt the inspira- 
tion which comes from the pres- 
ence of those whose ability or work 
or character we admire ? We need 
contact with men as well as with 
things. Intercourse with earnest, 
enthusiastic and able men makes 
better and more efficient engineers, 
broader and more effective men. I 
am sure there are many in common 
with me who have found the best 
thing in our Society to be the 
aquaintances and the friendships 
which have come through member- 
ship. 

Our Society at present bears a 
creditable record, it has honored 

12 



names on its roll, it has had earnest 
and substantial men as leaders, but 
yet it falls far short of that larger 
activity and influence which is pos- 
sible for a Society of Engineers in 
Pittsburg. 

A society house is essential to our 
fullest usefulness, and certainly it 
would be quite appropriate that 
wealth to which Pittsburg engineer- 
ing has contributed so much should 
in turn be applied to its Engineers' 
Society. The Society does not ask 
charity, nor should means for such 
a purpose come as an ordinary gift. 
Here is an opportunity for the well- 
to-do to make an investment which 
will bring rich returns to Pittsburg 
and Western Pennsylvania through 
the increased efficiency which it will 
give to its engineering forces. 

But buildings and facilities would 

13 



not constitute a society. They help, 
but the real thing is the men, their 
ability and character, their energy 
and spirit. Fellow members, it is 
for us to use well what we have, to 
broaden our ideas, to outline plans 
for realizing the results which our 
Society should achieve, and with 
renewed energy proceed to carry 
them out. Let us add to our mem- 
bership, partly because the Society 
wants good men, but more because 
good men need the Society. 

Only yesterday I was talking with 
a gentleman in the city and suggest- 
ed that he join the Society. He said; 
"I do not see that I could do the 
Society any good," and I replied; "I 
do not suppose you could, but the 
Society might do you a good deal of 
good." 
This notable banquet, with three 

14 



hundred at its table, represents our 
"annual" members; let us have more 
'^monthly" members, who will at- 
tend the regular meetings, contribute 
to the programs, take part in the dis- 
cussions and serve efficiently on com- 
mittees. Let each do his share, large 
or small, with earnestness and en- 
thusiasm to promote the dignity and 
success of the Society. Let us build 
up a society which engineers cannot 
afford to stay away from, and which 
it will be considered an honor and a 
privilege to assist, which will be a 
pillar to the engineering profession 
for maintaining the prominence of 
Pittsburg, and which will realize to 
the full the possibilities of an En- 
gineers Society of Western Tennsyl- 
vanta. 



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